When they', that is, the ways that he has been speaking about, when they are cast down, thou shalt say, Lifting up.' That is an exclamation or a prayer, and we might simply render, thou shalt say, Up!' Even in so blessed a life as has been described, times will come when the path plunges downwards into some valley of the shadow of death.' But even then the traveller will bate no jot of hope. He will in his heart say' Up!' even while sense says Down!' either as expressing indomitable confidence and good cheer in the face of depressing circumstances, or as pouring out a prayer to Him who has showed him great and sore troubles' that He would bring him up again from the depths of the earth.' The devout life is largely independent of circumstances, and is upheld and calmed by a quiet certainty that the general trend of its path is upward, which enables it to trudge hopefully clown an occasional dip in the road.
Such an obstinate hopefulness and cheery confidence are the natural result of the experiences already described in the text. If we delight in God, hold communion with Him and have known Him as answering prayer, prospering our purposes and illuminating our paths, how shall we not hope? Nothing need depress nor perturb those whose joys and treasures are safe above the region of change and loss. If our riches are there where neither moth, rust, nor thieves can reach, our hearts will be there also, and an inward voice will keep singing, Lift up your heart.' It is the prerogative of experience to light up the future. It is the privilege of Christian experience to make hope certainty. If we live the life outlined in these verses we shall be able to bring June into December, and feel the future warmth whilst our bones are chilled with the present cold. When the paths are made low, thou shalt say, Up!'
And the end will vindicate such confidence. For the issue of all will be, He will save the humble person'; namely, the man who is of the character described, and who is lowly of eyes' in conscious unworthiness, even while he lifts up his face to God in confidence in his Father's love. The saving' meant here is, of course, temporary and temporal deliverance from passing outward peril. But we may permissibly give it wider and deeper meaning. Continuous partial deliverances lead on to and bring about final full salvation.
We read that into the words, of course. But nothing less than a complete and conclusive deliverance can be the legitimate end of the experience of the Christian life here. Absurdity can no further go than to suppose that a soul which has delighted itself in God, and looked in His face with frank confidence, and poured out his desires to Him, and been the recipient of numberless answers, and the seat of numberless thank-offerings, has travelled along life's common way in cheerful godliness, has had the light of heaven shining on the path, and has found an immortal hope springing as the natural result of present experience, shall at the last be frustrated of all, and lie down in unconscious sleep, which is nothingness. If that were the end of a Christian life, then the pillared firmament were rottenness, and earth's base built on stubble.' No, no! A heaven of endless blessedness and close communion with God is the only possible ending to the facts of the devout life on earth.
We have such a life offered to us all and made possible through faith in Jesus Christ, in whom we may delight ourselves in the Lord, by whom we have access with confidence,' who is Himself the light of our hope, the answer of our prayers, the joy of our hearts, and who will deliver us from every evil work' as we travel along the road; and save us' at last into His heavenly kingdom,' where we shall be joined to the Delight of our souls, and drink for evermore of the fountain of life.
